LA 7044 Landscape Technology IV: Construction Documents, Details, Materials, and Design/Building
Putting it all together: this course gives students the opportunity of learning what are the components and graphic systems involved in putting together a set of construction documents (CD’s). Using a document developed by Design Workshop students design a gathering space on the slope behind Swine Palace on the LSU campus, and then prepare each of the plan document components that landscape architects prepare in securing construction bids and guide the construction in the field. The document components and process in preparing them is a chance to experience what will be expected of you to know once you graduate and join the professional world of landscape architecture. It is the ambition of this assignment for each student to have a complete set of contract documents to include in their professional portfolio or be able to bring to a job interview. Additionally, working individually students will design and build a folding chair.
LA 7041 Urban Systems Studio
The objectives of the LA 7041 Urban Systems studio course are to expose students to urban issues related to the contemporary practice of landscape architecture based on the following: the premise of the city as a system of numerous overlapping and intersecting systems, both natural and human-made; and therefore an effective strategy for dealing with such complex issues is rooted in understanding relevant components of these systems and devising metrics that will inform design initiatives.
The decision to focus on New Orleans public parks and open spaces for the Spring 2018 semester came about through a timely opportunity to collaborate with non-profit organization Parks for All on an initiative to develop a report card to grade parks and open spaces of all sizes, in multiple categories. Such a guide would assist in the shared goal of a beautified and accessible park system.
LA 4008 Advanced Topics Studio: Agri>Coastal
Using a telescopic approach to research and design, the aim of the Agri>Coastal studio was to develop scenarios, typologies, and generative spatial principals to restore nutrient balance in the Mississippi River Basin. Every summer, hypoxia threatens the economic and ecological vitality of the northern Gulf of Mexico, the nation’s largest and most productive fishery. Excessive nutrients, primarily from agricultural inputs, flow from the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin into the northern Gulf of Mexico, where they deplete oxygen levels and cause seasonal “dead zones.” By linking upland agricultural systems to coastal hydrologies and ecologies, this course developed a new framework for nutrient cycling in the Mississippi River Basin.
Using data supplied by the LSU School of the Coast & Environment and the LSU AgCenter, students researched nutrient and hydrological systems, diagrammed and mapped site-related real-time data, researched nascent technologies, and proposed speculative regional landscape scenarios. The studio engaged a range of sites throughout the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin and the northern Gulf of Mexico. Students developed spatial literacy and built proficiency in multiple modes of representation including orthographic, axonometric, perspective projection, and physical models. Students honed an iterative working method, translating concept into spatial form; responded effectively to critical feedback; and engaged a culture of critical yet productive peer review.
The Meat Movement
Regenerating the great plains, reducing the dead zone, and reforming the corn industry with a modern twist on historic cattle drives
Greg Dahlke and Abram Eberson
Strategy
Rebuilding a Matrix of Marine Habitat on Oil Rigs
Ran Liu and Shaoli Gan
LA 4008 Advanced Topics Studio: Synthetic Urban Ecologies
The fall 2013 “Synthetic Urban Ecologies” advanced topics studio emphasized site-specific urban and industrial influenced ecological systems. Students were charged to develop divisive interventions for the Port of Oakland, Oakland Army Base, and neighboring West Oakland communities, a site where environmental conditions have presented severe health risks and environmental impacts as well as social and environmental injustice due to the concentration of air pollution in the form of particulate matter. Using the innovative work that Urban Biofilter is pursuing through Adapt Oakland, a project that develops standards and policy recommendations for green urban infill at both city and state levels, the studio took advantage of the unique opportunities the site presents for adaptive design within a working urban and industrial landscape.
Advanced topics studios in landscape architecture address research and projects in the profession and make up part of the landscape architecture program’s travel requirements. The studios are a vertical mix of fifth-year undergraduate students and third-year graduate students.
LA 4008 Advanced Topics Studio: Biloxi Beachfront Reimagined
The site for the fall 2013 “Biloxi Beachfront Reimagined” advanced topics studio was the main beachfront in Biloxi, Mississippi, which has been highly modified by coastal engineering, development on the dune system, and the impacts of Hurricane Katrina. Students were asked to build on earlier strategic planning to develop proposals for the beachfront that would connect it to other open spaces, neighborhoods, and downtown and enhance the beach experience and the beachfront amenities while supporting economic development and sustainable infrastructure. The studio focused on the design of parks as resilient hybrid ecological systems and encouraged students to engage with the technology of water, vegetation, and site engineering within an existing social and cultural context. Students explored the existing and future site systems, vegetation, infrastructure for storm protection and drainage, sand management, fauna, and water and energy as a way of improving the landscape’s performance. They were asked to develop an improved facility, considering the pragmatics of open space design, such as circulation and parking, access and connectivity, programming, maintenance, and management.
Advanced topics studios in landscape architecture address research and projects in the profession and make up part of the landscape architecture program’s travel requirements. The studios are a vertical mix of fifth-year undergraduate students and third-year graduate students.
LA 4008 Advanced Topics Studio: Exploration in New Territories
Students enrolled in the fall 2013 “Culture and Design: Exploration in New Territories” advanced topics studio had a choice of two projects and locations. Each group had the opportunity to travel to their project site at the beginning of the semester. The first group traveled to Anchorage, Alaska, to conduct fieldwork at Denali National Park, where they worked with NPS professional staff. The students were charged with developing a facility, visitor’s center, and training area and backpacking, hiking, and camping site at Toklat Camp, a maintenance camp for park roads with heavy equipment, gravel mining, and lodging for seasonal workers. The second group traveled to Chengdu, China, to work in a collaborative studio with landscape architecture students at Sichuan Agricultural University on a cultural and agricultural tourism project in the mountains adjacent to the city of Ya’an. The students explored strategies for preserving an agrarian way of life—a living cultural preserve—that could be a model for preserving other cultural resources that are under threat as China embarks on the urbanization of the country.
Advanced topics studios in landscape architecture address research and projects in the profession make up part of the landscape architecture program’s travel requirements. The studios are a vertical mix of fifth-year undergraduate students and third-year graduate students.
LA 7011 Graduate Landscape Design I (Fall 2014)
Graduate Landscape Design I begins a four-semester set of studios that build sequentially in scale, complexity, and theoretical content. The first studio investigates issues of scale, terrain, composition, vegetation, and varied dynamic processes that shape urban public space along the waterfront in Baton Rouge. Students develop spatial literacy and build proficiency in multiple modes of representation, including orthographic, axonometric, perspective projection, and physical models. Students hone an iterative working method that translates concept into spatial form, responds effectively to critical feedback; and engages a culture of critical yet productive peer review. The studio comprises three different design exercises to be completed in sequence with supporting examinations of various theories and methods of representation.
LA 7021 Graduate Landscape Design II: Site Design (Spring 2013)
The graduate site design studio focuses on the arrangement of buildings, circulation, and other landscape design elements, placing emphasis on earthwork and drainage. In the spring 2013 studio, students proposed memorials and site plans for the Chalmette Battlefield and Cemetery in New Orleans to commemorate the Battle of New Orleans at Chalmette. Two objectives of the studio were to commemorate the 200 years of steadfast friendship that has developed between the United States and Great Britain since the conclusion of the War of 1812 and to honor the service of the more than 2,000 British soldiers who fell at Chalmette.
LA 7021 Graduate Landscape Design II: Site Systems (Spring 2016)
Site Systems is the second design studio for first-year Master of Landscape Architecture students. The studio curriculum is comprised of two different projects, which are pursued in tandem with examinations of various theories and methods of landscape representation. Projects require students to generate conceptual solutions to particular programmatic and site requirements. The midterm project looks at conceptually designing a small vacant lot in downtown Baton Rouge. The final project explores landform, canopy patterns, and recreational programming to the existing Baton Rouge Memorial Stadium Park. Both projects aim to explore the physical, material, and conceptual understanding of landscape design as well as introduce new modes of landscape thinking into the students’ design vocabularies through research, fieldwork, site analysis, drawing, modeling, conceptualization, programming, and visualization of the project at various scales.
LA 7031 Graduate Landscape Design III: Community Design (Fall 2011)
The graduate community design studio focuses on landscape planning and design at the community and neighborhood scale, emphasizing relationships of uses, transportation and infrastructure, green infrastructure, public services, and a mix of housing and commercial types.
The graduate community design studio focuses on landscape planning and design at the community and neighborhood scale, emphasizing relationships of uses, transportation and infrastructure, green infrastructure, public services, and a mix of housing and commercial types.